Kingdom Of Wonder

Another place we visited this year which made a huge impression on us was Angkor in Cambodia. Well, Cambodia itself made a huge impression on us. Admittedly we have seen just a small part of this beautiful country, but what we’ve seen was amazing. To begin with, from our tuk tuk driver to the people in the hotel and in the restaurants, the guards at the temples and pretty much everywhere else, the Cambodians are the most friendly people you’ll ever come across.

Obviously, we went to Angkor for the temples. We think that particularly the famous temples of Angkor Wat, the mysterious Bayon and Ta Prohm (that’s the one from the Tomb Raider movie) are on everybody’s bucket list of places to visit. And, if not, they should be.

“The temple complex of Angkor is simply stunning… it is spread over a giant area, mostly hidden underneath dense jungle. I don’t know the exact number of temples, but there are lots of them and even after visiting fifteen or twenty, you’ll never get tired of them. Quite often you think you’d like to come back to the same place at a different time of the day and it will be as if discovering something completely new again.

There’s this absolutely serene beauty of the smaller temples touched by the first light of the day, there are those incredibly delicate bas reliefs of Banteay Srei. There is the Roluos Group which is older than the main complex and has it’s very own character again. There is Banteay Samre,another under-rated temple complex and then there are the various shrines and structures inside Angkor Thom. Oh, and you need to visit Prea Kahn and Banteay Kdei to make you feel like an explorer you just discovered a long lost city.

My favourite however is the Bayon in the centre of Angkor Thom. There is something different about it, and it’s not just the famous face towers. I think it does deserve its own post…

Talking about exploring…. you’d need to do a bit of homework before visiting and have a knowledgable driver, so you can avoid the large tourist groups which are quite inevitable to find in such a place. But, it is possible. Get your timing right and you’re really on your own, it’s utterly magical!”

Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that Christian and Ana were completely blown away by the beauty of Angkor! We certainly hope that this post will get you dreaming, either of lost cities in the jungle or whatever is on your bucket list. And we think you should just go and make that dream come true. And if our words don’t convince you, maybe the picture do…